This is the season I am least-excited for. I'll give it a chance, but if it's at all a crapfest, I'll probably be tuning out mid-season. I can only hope to god that the following season is a bunch of all newbies.

I just read Dalton Ross's article over at EW that explains all the first day twists (he is there on set usually till the first boot) and how Redemption island is coming back into play. Very interesting stuff and either you are going to love it or hate it or be indifferent. I'm leaning towards indifferent right now.

Here's the article if anyone else wants to read up on what's going to happen early on (no boot mentioned or anything like that though):

First reaction is there are too many twists and options for the players - for me it's best when they play the game straight. However, I'll watch the first ep with an open mind and see how it plays out.

I do dislike RI though and am annoyed it's back. This is already a season of half returning players (some for the umpteenth time even), so why does anyone need yet *another* chance? You'd think with experienced players - like I said some of them multiple times, and three winners - they would be able to play it straight through and not require these stupid second chances. Ditto their loved ones - they would have had enough briefing and know enough to not require this.

But, as we all know RI isn't about giving players second chances - it's about the producers having another chance to keep their faves (and who they apparently think are our faves, therefore ratings, although as always I question their choices) in the game.

I actually like the twists - it will be interesting to see how players react to having the rug pulled out from under their plans every so often. I've actually found the most recent seasons a little boring; backstabbing and plotting is becoming old hat by now, with nothing to really shake up the deal-making.

I'm also happy to see Rupert back (although I know he isn't popular here). I like his enthusiasm and how he gets into the spirit of the game, even if he doesn't always play it that well. At least he seems to really want to be there and comes prepared for the hardships, unlike the whiners and quitters we've seen too often.

And I'm happy to see Tina again as well. I liked her in her original season and think it will be interesting to see how she adapts to the new game.

S2 is still one of my all-time favorites (even if it did unleash Elizabeth Filarski-now-Hasselbeck into the US consciousness), and I think Tina is a very underrated winner - but she was a nonentity in the first all-stars. I think it's hard for players from earlier seasons to jump back in - the game has changed so much, and earlier seasons often favored somewhat more mature players, who are going to have a harder time 10+ years on. I mean, look at Colby - he was a challenge dominator in the Outback, but you'd never guess it from his last time around. Same for Skupin. Tina wasn't a challenge beast, but she was very physically adept. She only won one (non-physical) individual challenge (reward - I believe to get to have an e-chat with family?), but she wasn't a drain on the team in physical challenges. I also remember her swimming to save the tribe's rice when their camp was flooded. Anyway, it'll be interesting how she adapts this time around.

S2 is still one of my all-time favorites (even if it did unleash Elizabeth Filarski-now-Hasselbeck into the US consciousness), and I think Tina is a very underrated winner - but she was a nonentity in the first all-stars. I think it's hard for players from earlier seasons to jump back in - the game has changed so much, and earlier seasons often favored somewhat more mature players, who are going to have a harder time 10+ years on. I mean, look at Colby - he was a challenge dominator in the Outback, but you'd never guess it from his last time around. Same for Skupin. Tina wasn't a challenge beast, but she was very physically adept. She only won one (non-physical) individual challenge (reward - I believe to get to have an e-chat with family?), but she wasn't a drain on the team in physical challenges. I also remember her swimming to save the tribe's rice when their camp was flooded. Anyway, it'll be interesting how she adapts this time around.

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Tina to me is somewhat like Richard. Richard simply figured out the game before anyone else and thus won - remember he was playing with mostly people who thought it was a camping trip with money at the end rather than a money game that happened to involve camping. Tina was the first to see that a sekret alliance was the way to go - and I'm not actually clear if it was her or Colby who came up with it. I do remember when she placed her vote at a very early TC she said that "a new strategy had emerged on the way to TC" and IIRC that was about her and Colby forming an alliance. But either way, that was the advantage they had - everyone else was forming friendships and playing hard in challenges, but no one else had taken the alliance strategy in that direction yet.

Many seasons later, alliances are the way of the game, and plenty of them are sekret. It's exactly how Hayden won BB after all. Tina will have to come up with a lot more this time around IMO.

it's all the same thing - coming up with the strategy no one is using, so no one sees it coming, right?

while we're reminiscing , I remember being impressed by Matthew in S6: Amazon. Like Rich Hatch, he was an avid outdoorsman, and he figured out the game in the same way that Hatch did...the trouble was that the show had been on a while and everyone else already knew that strategy, whereas Matthew had never seen it at all. And Rob Cesternino was taking strategy to the next level that season. Matthew made it all the way to the finale, but it was no longer enough to play at the S1 level.

that's a shame. niece of gervase had a lot more potential than gervase who showed up unable to swim for the 2nd time.

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He's had 13 years to think about it and he still can't swim!

I was LOL when Candice was talking about how much she hates Rupert. Everyone except Sandra has always hated Rupert and they have hated him more every season. The one thing he had going for him was his work ethic. Ha!

I like Caleb. I like Candice's husband (although I never liked Candice). I like Vytas and think that people would be fools to let both Vytas and Aras make it to the merge.

And Brad appears to be the leader of the loved ones tribe (but really, Jeff? The tribe isn't full of the returning players' loved ones. The each care about one and only one). How did that happen?

And I will have to watch just to see the return of EVIL COLTON a mere three days after his "I am so misunderstood" meltdown.

Is Candice the one who paired up with Penner the first time he played, who some guy professed his undying love for? I'm kinda rooting for her, but so far not impressed with her husband.

Can't tell the two older dark haired women apart, barely remember them. I will say they totally on that puzzle with Tina though, and I was at Tina's daughter going on and on about how great she'd be in the puzzle and then spending most of it looking panicked while she watched the moms ace it.

Gervase - first for not learning to swim, idiot, second for the fact that it was more than not being able to swim - he was out of breath, exhausted and didn't have the strength to pull him self out of the water and through the dry obstacles - and third for being the One Guy to act like they dominated the other team when in fact he was the One Guy who nearly lost it for them. If I was on his team I'd vote him out immediately as he's a big, big liability.

that Rupert is great at building shelters. Remember the first all stars when he dug a hole in the sand when they had a shelter challenge? And stubbornly wouldn't give it up? Same one where Rob put his leadership and construction skills to work with a mult-level shelter that included a sun deck??

I still can't figure out what part of America loves this guy, and apparently a bunch of the return players do too. That beard alone is so disgusting I can barely watch his scenes.

at the loved ones for making Marissa pay for Gervase. So much for all the talk about being classy when they win - yeah, targeting someone by association is really classy. They should have voted out Katie.

at Jeff finding another bromance to slobber over. I realize it's edited, but Brad got WAY too much attention at TC while others weren't shown at all, and I don't know whether to or at Jeff calling him - repeatedly - by his last name. I'm really hoping that Brad is getting this much air time because he goes early.

Good start for Hayden, who I was a fan of when he played BB. When Brad was going on about his brilliant guys alliance idea, I really wanted Hayden to say "dude, I INVENTED that." (Non-BB fans, Hayden won by striking an early alliance with three other guys that they kept completely secret until the very end - they lost one guy along the way, but he and the other two were final 3.) Anyone get the feeling he really doesn't want to align with the men? Methinks he and Cat had other plans going into this

Why don't I remember Aras at all? I watched every season except for the last one, and I don't remember him at all. Can anyone refresh me on his season?

Would have been nice to get some explanation as to why the first vote targeted Rupert's wife - they clearly did a little communicating on the fly, so it would be interesting to know why they chose her. Might have been one person and the rest going along with it figuring they don't know her anyway and "anyone but me." Also interested why Candice was targeted - thought it would have been Colton for sure. I think Colton thought so too.